Woman beaten by purse snatcher in Old Irving Park

Gerry Klemm was watching television late Thursday when she heard screaming and ran down the stairs to see a man standing over a woman who was bleeding.

"I opened my door to see if I could see where it was coming from and I had to go downstairs. ... The gentleman -- he wasn't even a gentleman -- the creature was standing there and when he saw me, he ran," Klemm said.

Klemm found the woman lying on the street in the Old Irving Park neighborhood. "Her face was a mess; she was bleeding pretty heavily," Klemm said. "She was pretty beat up."

Police say the 60-year-old woman was walking in the 4100 block of West Eddy Street about 11:45 p.m. when she was approached by the man. He walked up behind the woman and shoved her to the ground, then tried to take her purse, police said.

The woman refused to let go of the purse and the man began beating her, police said.

The woman was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital with bruises to the left side of her face and eye, police said. She was stable.

Police described the robber as Hispanic, wearing a black hoodie and black pants. Klemm said the man had a thin build and was between 5-foot-9 and 5-foot-10.

“I hope they catch him," Klemm said. "If he was brassy enough to go grabbing her -- and she wasn't that far from a street light either -- who knows what he'd try next time."